I'm sitting inside my cabin overlooking Lake
Baikal's largest Island, Olkhon, as I write this –warm and fresh after a
Siberian banya (my first shave in almost a week) with a cup of hot tea provided
by the welcoming staff. The sun is slowly setting on the opposite side of the
sky. Peace and rest at last – and with most of the way behind us.

Lake Baikal – the “Pearl of Siberia,” the world's
deepest freshwater lake, with dozens of endemic species to its name (including
the famous Omul fish, which I blame for my illness last time I visited the region
after it was served every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner in various
forms).

Baikal contains more water than all five of the Great Lakes combined,
and one-fifth of the world's fresh water supply! Its mysteries and charm have
appealed to many, including James Cameron, who dove to its depths in search of
new life forms.

All of it lies frozen before me...and soon our
adventurous and determined group of enthusiasts will cross it by car.

Thanks to my team's zealousness and ability to stay
awake for days on end, we were the first team to arrive at this “rest base” run
by a private company on Lake Baikal's shore. There are dozens of them scattered
around Baikal, as well as on its 20 plus islands. After a light breakfast and
being shown my bed, I read three pages of “Near Death in the Arctic” before turning off like a light
bulb. I even had the luxury of my
own room.

I remained in a deep sleep for almost five hours before one of the
caretakers was kind enough to wake me up for banya - I'd been looking forward to
it since the start of the trip. I didn't have the traditional birch branch for
beating my pores and I was restricted to only an hour, so this banya was
reduced to more of a hot shower and shave.

It was also the first time I'd gone alone. Normally
a group of guys will go and beat each other with branches. Oh well.

When I visited Lake Baikal in the summer of 2008, I
predicted, along with a British diplomat I met along the way, that within five
years the area would have Hilton hotels and be overrun with commercial
development. We were lucky to visit it while it was still wild then, we
concluded.

There's no Hilton hotel however, and I wouldn't say
its being overrun by tourists. But some modernity has crept in – the roads have
improved, there are more companies and guest lodgings catering to all kinds of
tourists, both Russian and international. Electricity and plumbing can be found
at many of the bases now, including ours.

I made my way across the ice at sunset to the giant
tent pitched on the ice for a huge wedding party for five couples who were
married today! The walk gave me a chance to try on the $10 rubber crampons I'd
been talked into buying at a Moscow sportswear shop weeks ago. It turns out
they do make walking on ice more convenient.

I arrived to loud music, local buffet (the further
east you travel in Russia, the bigger the “pelmeni” get until they start to
resemble Chinese dumplings) and a bar made completely of ice outside. We
congratulated the five couples who had just gotten married, and then proceeded
to drink, eat and dance to the tunes of a rock band from Perm.

Wedding celebration. Source: Artem Zagorodnov

Somebody had apparently set up a mobile banya
adjacent to the giant tent and a hole for diving near the banya (the master of
ceremonies warned people to try hard not to accidentally stumble into the hole
in the darkness). When I went to examine it, I discovered the hole had a giant
cross of ice above it and that religious men were making the dive as a sign of
their faith (continuing the centuries-old tradition of Orthodox believers).

While the idea of making a mad dash stark naked in
front of filming journalists to dive into freezing water didn't appeal to me at
first, my friend Tolya convinced me it was as good an occasion as ever to try
it. Inside the banya, one of the men who got married today assured me it was
his first time submerging himself into freezing water and that it didn't really
feel cold.

He added that the body doesn't have time to adjust to the sudden
change in temperature. What the hell I figured – and ran into the water, doing
the traditional three dips. Then I returned to the banya and did it all over
again. The guy was right about the water not feeling too cold, by the way.

What a journey.

The opinion of the writer may not necessarily reflect the position of RBTH or its staff.